LC Cataloging Newsline

Online Newsletter of the Cataloging Directorate, Library of Congress

Volume 7, no. 11, ISSN 1066-8829, September 1999
Contents

Cataloging Now! Institute on October 15
ILS Update
Subject Headings for Previous Editions
Cataloging Directorate Produces One-Millionth CIP Record
New ISBN Validation Feature in ECIP
Pinyin Conversion Update

Cataloging Now! Institute on October 15

"Cataloging Now! An ALCTS Institute on the PCC Core Record" will be presented October 15, 1999, in Parma, Ohio. The Ohio Library Council (OLC), OHIONET, and the Cuyahoga County Public Library are cosponsoring this event. The faculty includes Kate Harcourt (Columbia University); Michael Kaplan (Indiana University, Bloomington); Glenn Patton (OCLC); and Beacher Wiggins (Library of Congress). They will introduce the concept of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging core-level record in a plenary session, followed by separate breakout sessions for catalog librarians, administrators, and public services librarians. Catalog librarians will discuss the principles of creating core-level records. Administrators will be introduced to issues of cataloging values as well as management and training of catalogers in this new environment. Public services librarians will consider the implications of core-level records available in OPACs.

This final presentation of the Cataloging Now! Institute will be held at Cuyahoga County Public Library, Administrative Building, 2111 Snow Road, Parma, Ohio. Registration fees are $95 for ALCTS, OHIONET, and OLC members; $145 for ALA members, and $195 for non- members. Registration information is available from Wayne Piper, OLC (telephone: ((614) 221-9057) and on the ALCTS Web site at URL http://www.ala.org/alcts/events/institutes/.


ILS Update

The Library of Congress implemented the cataloging and circulation modules of its new integrated library system, the LC ILS, on August 16. The Library of Congress Online Catalog module was implemented on Windows 95 client machines in the Library's reading rooms on August 25 and on the LC World Wide Web site on August 31. The Library purchased the Voyager integrated library system software produced by Endeavor Information Systems, Inc., for its new ILS. The server for the new system is a Sun E10000 from Sun Microsystems.

All cataloging units in the Cataloging Directorate, Public Service Collections Directorate, and Acquisitions Directorate now use the LC ILS to perform initial bibliographic control, descriptive and subject cataloging, shelflisting, and bibliographic file maintenance. The Library is continuing to tune the system. A fuller article about the various LC ILS modules will be published in a forthcoming issue of LCCN.


Subject Headings for Previous Editions

Before August 16, instructions in the Subject Cataloging Manual directed catalogers to correct subject headings for previous editions of a work in the MARC file to assure that subject headings on all editions were the same. With the addition to the LC database of the earlier PreMARC records, this practice was changed. Beginning August 16, catalogers will update subject headings only for editions published in 1981 or later. This date corresponds approximately to the set of records created with AACR2 cataloging.


Cataloging Directorate Produces One-Millionth CIP Record

On August 12, 1999, the number of cataloging records available to the nation's libraries through the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) program passed the one million mark. As the one-millionth record to be created since the program began in 1971, the CIP Team, Cataloging in Publication Division, identified Write It Down, Make It Happen: a Practical and Inspirational Guide to Identifying What You Want--and Getting It, by Henriette Anne Klauser, scheduled for publication by Scribner in January 2000.

The United States CIP Program was established in the Library of Congress Cataloging Directorate in 1971. Publishers submit applications for CIP data, along with a galley and front matter, prior to publication of a title. CIP Division staff, catalogers, technicians, and Decimal classifiers create a catalog record for the title according to the same standards used for cataloging of published materials, and the completed cataloging data are mailed to the publisher for printing in the published book. Upon publication of the book, the publisher submits a copy to the Cataloging in Publication Division to ensure that the data in the catalog record match the book as published. In fiscal year 1998, the Library cataloged 51,792 titles through the CIP Program. The Library's Cataloging Distribution Service distributes these catalog records as part of its MARC Distribution Service, making the records available to libraries and library service vendors worldwide.


New ISBN Validation Feature in ECIP

An ISBN validator has been added to the application through which publishers in the electronic CIP (ECIP) program submit data to LC. Staff at the publishing house complete the ECIP data application and click on the "Submit" button. It is at this point that the ISBN will be validated. The publisher will not be able to submit the application, until the ISBN is correct and the validation routine runs successfully.


Pinyin Conversion Update

For the past several months, the Library has sought to coordinate pinyin conversion activities with OCLC and RLG through frequent conference calls. These calls have helped the three organizations to clarify roles and responsibilities for the many aspects of the conversion project. Discussions have primarily focused on the development of a marker to be added to local fields in bibliographic records to indicate which subfields within a record have been converted and which have not. The marker is intended to help utilities and vendors identify the status of records that are loaded into their databases from external sources. The parties have also discussed OCLC's exploration of using its authority control system for pinyin conversion activities.

The Library of Congress will host a meeting of representatives from research libraries with large Chinese collections, along with key staff from RLG and OCLC, on Thursday, October 7. The meeting has been initiated and organized by Harvard University. Invited participants will seek to coordinate planning for pinyin conversion activities more broadly by agreeing on the timing of major conversion-related events and responsibility for performance of certain tasks. Issues that particularly affect local catalogs and local library systems will also be addressed.

The Library of Congress has completed revision of name authority records for Chinese conventional place names, so that headings for major localities in China now correspond to the form used by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN). Headings for more than 260 Chinese geographic locations have been changed, along with over 5,300 related authority records. Most of the new headings appear in pinyin romanization. Headings on bibliographic records for LC's book, music, manuscript, sound recording, and visual material records have been revised to reflect these changes, as have the headings on many records in the former PreMARC file. Headings on serial records have been identified but not yet changed. It is hoped that headings for these place names on Chinese bibliographic records can be changed at the same time that the records are converted from Wade-Giles romanization to pinyin. All new cataloging should use the revised form, whether as an entry element, a qualifier, or a subject subdivision.


LC Cataloging Newsline (ISSN 1066-8829) is published irregularly by the Cataloging Directorate, Library Services, Library of Congress, and contains news of cataloging activities throughout the Library of Congress. Editorial Office: Cataloging Policy and Support Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540-4305. Editor, Robert M. Hiatt; Editorial Advisory Group: William Anderson, Victoria Behrens, John Byrum, Roselyne Chang, Janice Herd, Angela Kinney, Albert Kohlmeier, John Mitchell, Mary Louise Mitchell, Susan Morris, Geraldine Ostrove, David Smith, and David Williamson. Address editorial inquiries to the editor at the above address or [email protected] (email), (202) 707-5831 (voice), or (202) 707-6629 (fax). Listowner: David Williamson. Address subscription inquiries to the listowner at [email protected]

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